Movie Reviews

Colourful Film, Chopped & Cropped...

Piers | Melbourne, Australia | 06/13/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Mario Bava is obviously the granddaddy of the 80s Body Count Boom and Italian Giallo, having done "Blood and Black Lace" and "Twitch of the Death Nerve", and invented both the faceless mad killer and setpiece death sequences in the process. This film is probably my favourite of his as he gives the threadbare plot an awesome stylistic veneer. Candy coloured sets, moody music, great camera angles, awesome tracking shots and some suspenseful sequences.I got the DVD of this film to preserve those colours and to get the awesome array of extras that VCI packaged with them (Alternate credit sequences, photo galleries, a great soundtrack option, informative commentry and many trailers). However, I had read that this film was uncut and in its proper screen ratio and that is a complete lie!Here in Melbourne we have a free-to-air station that broadcasts oddities like uncut widescreen Dario Argento films, Hong Kong Movies, Sweet Sweetback's Baaaadass Song, Manga etc. [They don't call Australia 'The Lucky Country' for nothing : ) ] Anyways, they showed this film a few years ago and not only was it matted significantly wider (1.85 : 1, as opposed to the DVD's 1.66 : 1), but it also had an extra bit during the "hot stove" sequence, where the killer not only pulled the woman's face off the stove and showed it to the camera, but then stuck it back on again. I'm not saying that this DVD is now worthless, because the extras packaged with it are fantastic and well worth the money, BUT if you think that this version is UNCUT and FULLY WIDESCREEN, you are WRONG."

Horror from the past influences the present

xface | west texas | 04/22/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For all you Mario Bava fans out there - here is a beautiful box set of 'must have' movies! The list of cinematographers, directors, writers, and actors influenced by the mastery of Bava would be impossible to put in this small space. Suffice it to say that 'greats' such as Fulci, Argento, Scorcesi, Miner, Carpenter, Craven and others owe a huge debt of gratitude to the first influential European horror director to combine ALL the attributes necessary to produce spectactular, beautiful, meaningful horror that we all crave. The Whip and the Body was the first horror/ghost story to combine a disfunctional family, cousinly love, and sadism (cool taboo subjects back then) into a superbly acted, filmed flick. The use of lighting, shading, colors, and sound rank at the top in cinema history that movies today can only TRY to duplicate. Experts have agreed that this movie was a 'how to' on color manipulation. Blood and Black Lace was the forerunner of all the so-called 'bodycount' movies. Yes, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Scream (again, the list goes on and on)-- they all got their ideas from THIS movie. Kill Baby Kill (one of my all-time favorites) inspired the supernatural revenge ideas that prevailed in later years (The Shining, The Changeling, The Church, Magic...and on and on). This DVD set ROCKS, folks! Buy it while it's still available - you won't regret it. I gave it 5 stars because i couldn't go any higher."